Gas phase biotreatment of MTBE

Two parallel biotrickling filters were used to enrich the MTBE degrading aerobic microbial consortium and to study the performance of MTBE removal from synthetic waste gas. The same consortium can also degrade tert-butyl alcohol, a potential metabolite of MTBE biodegradation, at a similar rate. After the acclimation phase, the biotrickling filters degraded ≤ 50 g of MTBE/cu m-hr, which is comparable to other gasoline constituents. MTBE degrading biotrickling filters had several advantages for industrial applications such as ~ 97% conversion of MTBE to CO2, the absence of any degradation by-products in either gas or liquid phase, very high specific degradation activity per amount of biomass, and low biomass accumulation rate. Although MTBE is often considered as a recalcitrant compound, it can be effectively biodegraded under carefully controlled environmental conditions.

Duke Scholars

Author Marc Deshusses Civil and Environmental Engineering